


Life, Death and Hope

by Queen of the Castle (queen_of_the_castle_77)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-29
Updated: 2011-09-29
Packaged: 2017-10-24 03:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_of_the_castle_77/pseuds/Queen%20of%20the%20Castle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Today is the day the music literally dies, along with everything else on Earth, to be replaced with the sounds of screaming and crying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life, Death and Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Written for who_contest drabble challenge #5: Music.

Not long after the Doctor is told that he’s going to die soon, he takes a deep breath and aims the TARDIS for Earth in the year two billion and seventy-nine. The TARDIS orbits the planet and he looks down on it from a safe distance.

Today is the day the music literally dies, along with everything else on Earth, to be replaced with the sounds of screaming and crying. It’s an infamous day of death and fear; the sort of thing the Doctor usually tries to steer clear of to avoid the temptation of stepping in and changing things. Today, though, this is exactly the sort of time and place in which he needs to be.

Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heating pot, the humans down on the planet below have remained despite all the warning signs that the distant expanding sun is heating up their world. They’re too stubborn, in the end, to leave. The danger doesn't seem real to them because they can’t feel it affecting them, until they suddenly _can_. The heat finally exceeds their capacity to cope. Their blood boils under their skin.

Seventeen billion people will die before they can flee, and the Doctor will make himself watch.

It’s not because he needs proof that his isn’t the only existence that’s precarious; he’s always had that knowledge and hated it. Rather, it’s because he wants to remember that no matter how much adversity they face, the human race lives on out there in the universe. One day, after they’ve had time to get past the tragedy and move onto reminiscence instead, they’ll even revive the Earth and move right back in.

So where other people might look upon this day as a time of pure despair, the Doctor sees hope.

As much as the TARDIS, humanity as a whole has always been his most constant companion. He’s forever saving them, even as he’s putting them at risk. He’s honestly not sure whether or not they’ll be better off without him.

Either way, though, they’ll survive. They always do. It’s just a small part of what makes them special, resounding through the universe.

He's not sure he can say the same for himself. His song is ending, they say. He can't be certain he’ll survive that. Even regenerating into some new man might not save him.

All he can do is hope.

~FIN~


End file.
